As the world marks World Diabetes Day, fresh concerns have emerged over Nigeria’s growing diabetes crisis, with civil society groups warning that the country’s weak health system and slow policy response are fuelling preventable deaths.
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), in a statement yesterday, said the latest figures on diabetes in Nigeria expose a deepening public-health emergency requiring urgent government intervention. The group was reacting to a disclosure by the Diabetes Association of Nigeria (DAN) that at least 30,000 Nigerians die from diabetes every year, while an estimated 11.4 million are currently living with the disease.
The figure is significantly higher than the International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF) estimate of about 2.99 million adult Nigerians, underscoring concerns that many cases remain undiagnosed or poorly managed.
But the more troubling issue, CAPPA argued, is the cost of staying alive. With diabetes management now averaging between ₦100,000 and ₦120,000 monthly, millions of patients face a stark choice between medical care and survival. For families already battling inflation and economic hardship, this cost, the group said, “has effectively made proper treatment impossible and turned diabetes into a death sentence.”
The mounting health and economic burden, CAPPA warned, reflects broader problems — weak regulations on unhealthy foods, underfunded health systems, and an environment where sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods are aggressively marketed and widely available.
“These statistics reinforce the reality of Nigeria’s non-communicable disease (NCD) crisis and the fragility of our health system,” the group said. “It is not surprising that Nigeria continues to rank among countries with the lowest life expectancy globally.”
CAPPA said Nigeria’s rising diabetes prevalence cannot be addressed without confronting the structural issues enabling the crisis. It identified lax regulation of unhealthy diets, inadequate prevention campaigns, and insufficient financing for NCD care as key contributors.
Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said DAN’s call for the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on diabetes care highlights the scale of the challenge. But he insisted that meaningful progress depends on tackling the drivers of the disease — particularly high sugar consumption.
He pushed for an upward review of the sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) tax and urged that all revenue accruing from the tax, as well as from tobacco and alcohol levies, be dedicated to health financing.
According to him, evidence from other countries shows that higher SSB taxes reduce consumption, encourage product reformulation and generate revenue for NCD services.
Beyond taxation, CAPPA said Nigeria must implement a suite of healthy-food policies — including sodium-reduction targets, front-of-pack nutrition labelling and restrictions on marketing ultra-processed foods to children — if it hopes to reverse current trends.
However, the group stressed that prevention alone is not enough, as millions already live with diabetes and require consistent care, medications and monitoring. Without deliberate investment in NCD services, CAPPA warned, Nigeria risks worsening mortality and further impoverishing households.
This year’s World Diabetes Day theme, “Diabetes Across Life Stages,” underscores the urgency of adopting life-course approaches to diabetes care, especially for vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and low-income households.
CAPPA said Nigeria’s diabetes challenge is not merely a medical issue but a policy and development problem, one that demands coordinated action to safeguard public health and prevent avoidable deaths.